Home: A Stranded Novel (14 page)

“Thanks for coming and having my back
,” she told him with gratitude.

“Yeah, yeah but I get the shower first!”

“Shower? We have a shower?!” she asked in excitement.

Josh playfully punched her in the shoulder. “See what I gave up to come out here? You owe me
big time…race you!”He took off crashing through the trees.

As Alex started to run
, she let go of all her worries and for just a few minutes let herself be the girl she used to be, running after her friend through the trees.

Lisa woke to the sound of rain on the camper’s roof. It was a soothing sound and she pulled the sleeping bag higher up around her ears to stay in the warmth of it for a few more minutes. She flashed back two nights before and the news they had all supplied from their scouting. Everyone had been relieved by the news that Alex had brought back about their mothers and siblings, everyone except Lisa and Cooper. He knew his father’s fate but Lisa didn’t know anything about what had happened to her parents. She was pretty sure her father had been in Calgary when the pulse hit, as he had his main office there, but her mother didn’t travel in the same social circles as her new friends’ parents so they didn’t know her.

Lisa couldn’t help but wonder if her mother had changed. Had the hardship of living without electricity and modern conveniences made her
a better person like it had her daughter, or had she found someone to take care of her like she had her whole life? Lisa hoped her mother had changed, because right now she felt emptiness inside whenever she thought of her mother. It would really be nice if that could be filled by love and concern. She pushed aside what she knew deep down that she would never have, and thought about the plans for the day.

Yesterday, they had driven over an hour west into one of the many provincial parks in the area and found a secluded spot deep in the forest to do some target practice.
Lisa had never fired a gun before and she had been nervous. Emily and David both had experience shooting rifles, so they had held the handguns with more confidence and it had only taken them a few practice shots before they were hitting the tree they were targeting. Quinn had been very patient with Lisa as he stood behind her and adjusted her grip and stance. He told her what to do and what to be prepared for but she still couldn’t help herself from closing her eyes and flinching when she first pulled the trigger. After a dozen shots she was still too intimidated to come anywhere close to the tree trunk she was aiming for.

Quinn was showing her once again how to reload the gun when Josh started making jokes about her.

“Forget it, Quinn. Just give her some pom-poms and she can throw them at the bad guys! She’s never going to hit that tree, probably afraid she’ll break a nail or something!”

The old Lisa surfaced at his taunts and she wanted so badly to crush him like a bug with her trademark sarcastic venom
, but she was trying to leave that girl behind in this new world so she ignored him. He kept at it and she felt her anger rise with every word.

“Hey
, Lisa, maybe you can stand on one of the buildings roofs and distract the bad guys with a cheer. You could do a high kick and a cartwheel. That’ll really show them!” Josh taunted with a laugh.

When Quinn handed her the loaded gun, her temper was barely suppressed and in one motion she brought the gun up and fired without pause until it clicked empty. She was so pissed at Josh that she didn’t even acknowledge the fact that she had hit the tree dead
-on with four shots. She glanced at Josh when he let out a rebel yell and was completely confused by his cheerful expression. Seconds ago the guy was throwing nasty insults her way and now he was doing a funky happy dance? What was with this guy?

Josh danced over to Lisa with a big grin and held up his hand for a high five. When she just stared at him blankly
, he put on a fake pout.

“
Aww, come on, Lisa, it worked, didn’t it?”

“What? What worked?”
she asked, completely lost.

“I got you mad, right? I got you out of your head so you would just shoot. You were over
-thinking it! It worked too. You hit your target four times!” Josh grinned and turned her to point at the tree she had shot.

“I hit it? I hit it four times.” She turned to Josh and beamed a huge smile. “I did! I hit it four times!”
she said excitedly.

Emily walked over and put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder before giving Josh a
bemused look.

“I really do love you
, Josh, but do you have to be a total idiot?” she asked.

He gave her a wounded look. “Hey, I was trying to help!”

Emily just shook her head. “Yup, you pissed off a girl with a loaded gun. Smart, really smart.” She turned to Lisa. “If you have to shoot him, aim for his feet. We still need him for a few things!”

The two girls broke out in laughter as Josh stalked away pretending to be offended and Lisa felt the last of her nerves flow away. She looked at Quinn and winked.

“How about we try a bigger gun?”

When he threw
his hands up in mock surrender, she laughed again and followed Emily over to the rifles.

The rest of the shoot
ing practice went well and they all got comfortable firing the more powerful assault rifles on all three settings. They wouldn’t win any awards in accuracy but at least they all now knew how to use them. By the time they made it back to their base, it was late afternoon and the weather had turned to rain, so they stayed in camp and discussed different ideas of their plan. They all agreed that they needed to do more scouting and get more information but after seeing and hearing about how their families were being treated they wanted to make their move fairly soon.

Lisa felt the camper shift as one of the girls got up and she pulled her sleeping bag down enough so that her eyes could peak over the edge. Alex was up and moving around the small kitchen area. Lisa was still surprise
d at how much she admired the girl after having such contempt for her when they went to school together. It was amazing how one month had changed her perspectives in life, and what she had looked down on before became things she admired.

The pressure of her bladder told her it was time to get up so she unzipped her bag and shuddered at the cold air that flew in. Spring mornings in Alberta were far from warm
, so she was quick to layer up before shuffling in her thick socks to the tiny bathroom in the camper. They had no power or water working in the camper but the toilet emptied directly in to a holding tank so they had agreed to use it at night and first thing in the morning. Quinn had scavenged blue portable waste containers from some of the RVs they had looted and had explained to her how you could empty the holding tanks into them and then wheel them away to dump. She was still marvelling at all the things they had to do now, with no power, just to meet their basic needs. She used a bucket of water that was in the bathtub to rinse the toilet, and a bottle of water by the sink to brush her teeth and clean her hands and face before joining Alex at the small dining table.

Alex had brought her sleeping bag with her from her bunk and was zipped into it on the bench. She gave Lisa a warm smile and pulled it up higher when a draft of cold air sneaked in to it.

“I never thought I would be this grateful for a camper in the woods! Can you imagine sleeping in a tent right now? We would be popsicles! You and Quinn have my many thanks for hauling this sucker back here.”

Lisa shivered, “At least it’s not snowing. Remember last year? We had a huge party planned at the lake for May long weekend and we ended up getting something like ten centimeters.”

Alex shuddered, “Bite your tongue! I don’t even want to think about snow. I’m already having nightmares about how we’re going to survive next winter without central heat!”

“
Mmmmm, central heat,” Emily muttered as she shuffled in to the room and squeezed in beside Lisa on the dining table bench. She opened the blanket she had wrapped around herself and spread part of it over Lisa so they could huddle under it together. With a huge yawn, she asked “What’s the plan for today?”

Dara answered her. She had followed Emily into the room and was looking out the small window above the sink.

“Looks like the plan is to get very wet and very cold.” She turned and joined the other three girls at the table with a look of disgust at the weather outside. Alex moved over to give her space and they huddled together for a minute as they slowly woke up.

They started to hear sounds from outside so Alex parted the blinds and checked to see who was moving around out there. With a smirk at Dara
, she told them what she had seen.

“Looks like your boyfriend
is on breakfast duty, he’s set up the camp stove under their awning.”

Dara let out a sigh. “Well
, in that case, we should…stay right here and let him do it!”

Alex laughed, “You know he can burn water
, right?”

Dara gave a one shouldered shrug. “That’s ok
ay, he has other talents.”

Alex gaped at her.
“Seriously? He finally made a move?”

Dara gave a smug smile. “He might be a goof
, but man oh man, can that boy kiss!”

Alex held up a hand in a stop gesture. “Ok
ay, okay, I'm happy for you guys but please no details! Josh is way too much like a brother to me for that. Can I just say…EEEWWW!”

Dara laughed, “Fair enough. What about you? Have Quinn or Cooper made any moves again?”

Alex rolled her eyes. “No, thank God. I think they put all that on hold while we sort out what to do about our families, and now that I think about it, Cooper has barely even spoken to me in days.”

Dara frowned and looked down at the table before glancing at the other girls. “Yeah, he’s really struggling right now. He blames himself for what his
dad did to the town and then…something happened when we were scouting.” She took a deep breath and explained how the two girls they had first approached had reacted. “He took it really hard.”

Lisa was surprisingly the first to respond. “That’s total bull! It’s not his fault at all!”

Alex shook her head. “No, it’s not. We will have to find a way to make him understand and we’ll all have his back if anyone says different. Agreed?” When all the girls nodded, Alex peaked out the blinds again. “Oh, crap! We've got to get out there!”

At the other girls
’ concerned faces, Alex told them with a grim expression, “Josh just put a frying pan on the stove!”

They all scrambled to get out from behind the table and get dressed. They knew they were in for charred pancake pucks if they didn’t get Josh away from that stove.

The girls saved breakfast from disaster and everyone ate as many pancakes as possible. They knew they would be burning up calories in the cold, wet weather as they scouted out the roadblocks set up around town. The plan was to stick together today and use the truck and bikes to circle the town. They would drive out a good distance and then use their bikes to get in closer to town on the main roads. It would take too long to walk around the town at a safe distance and check each road for guards, so Quinn would drive and drop teams of two at each road starting on the north side of town before circling back to pick up the first team and moving on to the east and then south side before finishing the loop on the west side and returning to base. Now that they had the radios, it would be easier to communicate if any of the teams ran in to trouble.

They decided that Quinn and Lisa would travel in the truck because his leg was still healing
and she was the least experienced with a firearm. They loaded up six bikes in the back of the truck and it made for a tight fit with three in the cab and five in the back, but it was better than walking.

There wasn’t a lot of talking for the five in the back
, with the wind and rain blowing down on them. They kept their hoods up and heads down until they felt the truck slowing down. The first road they were going to scout ran in a north south direction. The road ran between Emily and Josh’s properties so they would team up to bike down it. The plan was for them to bike as close to town as they thought was safe and then use the fields on either side of the road to get close enough to see if there was a roadblock set up. Everyone in the group knew the most likely roads that would be watched but they had to make sure they didn’t miss a group of guards. They needed to account for as many as possible if any plan they came up with was to be successful.

Josh helped Emily down from the truck bed and David and Cooper helped to pass down their bikes. Once they were ready, Josh reached under his jacket and turned on the
walkie talkies so Quinn could contact them if anything went wrong. With a quick wave, the two pedalled away and Quinn drove to the next road that led into town and dropped off David and Alex. As soon as they were away, he drove to the area they had first scouted on the main highway when they had sent Cooper to the roadblock. There had been four guards there when Cooper had biked up and talked to his father’s friend but they wanted to confirm the number was the same.

Cooper and Dara were going to scout this location and Dara gave a shiver as rain slid down her back when she stepped out of the warm interior of the truck.
They unloaded their bikes and headed down the road to the trees that they had used the first time to spy on the roadblock.

Quinn and Lisa did a U-turn in the truck and headed back to where they had first dropped off Josh and Emily.
When they made it back Quinn pulled to the side of the road and shut the engine off. He was feeling guilty for sitting in the warm, dry truck while his friends were out in the cold rain putting themselves in danger. As if she had read his mind, Lisa brought up the next part of the plan.